Whether or not you’ve been working on this month’s Confident Knitting pattern, the Flux Hand Warmers, chances are, if you’ve been knitting any length of time, you’ve knitted one of Martina Behm’s patterns. I've loved featuring a Martina creation first in A Year of Techniques (the Wood Warbler Cowl), then in Something New to Learn About Lace (the Nissolia Shawl) and now in Confident Knitting. On top of that, she’s also a designer I come back to again and again for my non-work, just-for-fun knitting.

Martina’s patterns have a really particular brand of magic. She is able to dream up patterns that constantly have me asking “how did your brain come up with that?!” But that complexity doesn’t translate to a tricky knitting experience – quite the opposite! Her patterns are clear and really relaxing to knit and often friendly for beginner knitters! Blending those two elements — of clever surprise and easeful knitting — is, in my humble opinion, a very rare skill!

Take her most recent pattern, the Circle and Square Hat. I cast on for this hat basically the moment it was released … I just had to see for myself how it came together! A hat that begins life as a circle than finishes off with a square? It was totally unexpected, totally fun to knit with a favourite self-striping yarn (I used a precious skein of Fab Funky Fibres but it would look amazing in a Zauberball or Zauberball Crazy too) and totally genius.

The knitting itself is super, super simple. This hat has been worked on during a number of Zoom knit nights, and I’ve not needed to rip anything back. I can’t often say that after knit night – in person or virtual!

My hat has progressed a bit more since I took that photo, and I think it might even be finished today! I feel a bit sad saying that…

I had a similar feeling of relaxed wonder working Spiral Escape, an imminently wearable cowl that comes together in a really unexpected way! The construction magic of the pattern aside, who would guess that this shape:

Lies so nicely like this, giving you the perfect coverage beneath a favourite coat:

It’s easy to think that, when it comes to the relatively ancient art of knitting, there’s nothing new under the sun, but Martina’s one of those designers who really challenges that notion. She’s designing at the intersection of innovation and approachability, and our knitting lives are the richer for it!

If you, like me, enjoy a bit of a puzzle in your knitting…

In the sense of how is this going to come out? Not in the sense of I don’t know what I should be doing!!

I highly recommend you go find something from Martina Behm’s design stable and cast on!

Having now completed three pairs of Flux Hand Warmers from my ball of Zauberball Crazy in shade Garden Party, I’m going to step away from the pattern for a bit. But if you’d like to try your hand at the Flux Hand Warmers, you can grab Confident Knitting and a ball of Zauberball Crazy in the online shop! I can’t promise it will be easy to stop churning them out once you’ve started though…